


Regrets

by AMNigma



Series: Regrets [1]
Category: I Became a Maid in a TL Novel, Original Work
Genre: Beato's forgivable, F/M, I hate all of them, I read the spoilers and let me just say, Light Novel, Regret, Self-Indulgent, Somewhat, Spoilers, Tragedy, Webtoon, begging for forgiveness, but i still need this for the rest okay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26871691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMNigma/pseuds/AMNigma
Summary: Everyone gets a glimpse of the original timeline and sees what they have done to Nina.
Relationships: Nina Cage/Ricardo, Original Character & Original Character
Series: Regrets [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995934
Kudos: 24





	Regrets

They worked to correct people, fictional and non-fictional alike, in their own time. This time, they were tasked with Nina Cage’s case. 

“What do you think?” 

“The men are assholes, as always.”

“Aside from the obvious?” 

The two stared at each other for a long time before shrugging at each other and snapping themselves into the world they were tasked to correct. 

~~

“How did you get here?” 

It was a reunion for the previous Saintess and the Pope with the Kingdom of Monarch. Of course, it was supposed to be a private party with only a handful of guests, but seeing the expressions of the people around, it seemed as if they saw Maleficent in the christening of their child. Not that they knew who that was. 

“Nina Cage,” she called as she floated above the flurry of people. She knew who it was at first sight, but the sight of all the people protecting the young girl was both cute and hilarious to her, she couldn’t stop herself. 

“Will you quit it?” her brother asked, and the girl rolled her eyes fondly. Instead of continuing with teasing the people around, the dark-haired female made a movement with her wrist and instantly, the small figure of Nina Cage came swooping up to them, joining them in the air. 

“Let her go,” various voices screamed in various tones and half a second later wind and light came slashing their way. The raven haired girl and the blue haired boy smiled. 

“We’ll be in the West Tower if anyone needs us.” 

The flying male instead stated as he snapped his fingers, transporting the three flying people to the said venue. 

~~

Nina was scared, but she didn’t want her captors to see it. Remaining silent, she was settled on the ground of what was once her cell. Her breathing restricted at the onslaught of memories she tried to forget from the first timeline. The one she read about of the original Nina. 

“Oh, sorry.” As if actually apologetic, the girl who grabbed her just moments ago smiled angelically and made a wave with her hand. Moments later, the drab cell filled with moss and cobwebs was replaced with what seemed to be a normal modern household from when she was in Korea. “Is this better?” 

Confused, but still skeptical, she stared around her then back to her captors. 

“I’m Arkane,” the girl extended her hand in a handshake, a form of modern communication that even she remembers. Nina took the offered hand and shook it. It was warm, not that of someone who’d harm her, but she can never be too sure. “That guy over there is my brother, Scion.” 

“Ni-” she cleared her throat, nervous from what had just happened. “Nina.” 

“Yep, we know. We came to help you.” 

That confused her more. Help her with what?

“We know you’re from 21st century Korea, you see.” Her heart thumped. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Arkane squatted in front of her. Now that she looked at the girl, she was probably younger than her. At least, she looked younger than the current 19-year-old self she was as Nina Cage. 

“Don’t worry, we’re here to take you ba-” 

“No!” she pleads, holding the hem of Arkane’s shirt. She was a pretty girl. If they were in Korea, she wouldn’t doubt it if the girl was recruited as a model or an idol. Those kind brown eyes twinkled. “Please don’t.” 

“We’re here to take you back,” she repeated, this time with a softer tone. “If you wanted to, but seeing as you don’t, then that’s fine as well.” 

There was a part of her that wanted to believe. A part of her that screamed that the girl was telling the truth. That part scared her, because if they really meant no harm and were this kind to offer her an out, to go back to her own world, they wouldn’t look as menacing as they did when they took her from the palace. 

As she thought about what her brother or Ricardo might do, a loud explosion shook the ground. 

“They’re here.” the blue haired guy, no, boy. He didn’t look like he was past his teens yet either. His name was Scion, wasn’t it? 

“Took them long enough,” Arkane stood up and Nina could see her side profile. Even the side profile looked great. 

“It took them 5 minutes.” 

“One of them had wind magic thingy, he could’ve sped off like the wind, couldn’t he?” 

Snorting, Nina laughed lightly despite the circumstances. Basing on modern superheroes, that should work, shouldn’t it? He should ask Alex about it later. 

“That’s a nice laugh you have,” it was the first sentence the boy had told her, and he had a similar kind smile. They really were siblings, but why were they doing this?

As if to answer her inner monologue, Arkane responded. “We have something to show you.” As she spoke, she offered her hand and Nina took it by impulse. She was whisked to the other end of the room as the wall she had just been leaning on had been blown away revealing Ricardo and Alex with Leo, Dio, Seraphie, and her brother behind them. “All of you.” 

~~

_“We must kill her.”_

_Beato became interested in Nina Cage, in the west tower, because of a letter. The moment he received the letter, the scholar had felt a lump on his chest that never left him to the day of her death. That thing was small, but it never disappeared from the heart._

_The wind blew. It was a lukewarm wind that was neither cool nor hot. He murmured inward, looking at the candle that would sway in the wind._

_“_ Yes, the child died on a day like this _,” the scholar thumped his chest with his palm._

_On a day like this, a lump was revealed in his heart. It was very small, but it continued to cause pain in the chest. He kept beating his chest, but it just swelled up, asking, “_ Did you think that this pain would disappear? _”_

_“_ No one remembers her now. _”_

_No, maybe the kind-hearted commander who executed the sentence himself remembers. He laughed a little._

_The memory of the day was still vivid._

_Though emotions were said to be piling up in time, the lump was laughing at him, sometimes by revealing its existence._

_The scholar closed his eyes._

“ _I don't want to escape.”_

I can't forget you. Nina, you've told me to forget about you.

_He walked, with the wind blowing on his way, remembering out his old memories. The memories revealed were uglier and dirtier than he thought. Beato laughed again, the pain lingered in his chest._

_Unfortunately, it was a very ordinary day. The castle served the lamb with spices, and the vegetable soup was delicious. It was a very ordinary day for disciples to underline their homework._

_Yes. It must have been that afternoon. The evening of the day, as usual, when I gave 'advice' as a scholar to His Majesty._

_The king of Iberia extended a strange letter. As soon as the scholar saw that letter, he could not say anything._

_The king's late voice rang in his ear,_

_“What should I do?”_

_The contents of the letter were simple._

_He meant to kill an 18-year-old maid locked up in a West-like place. In a brief letter, the reason was briefly written, and he thought calmly. For now, it was important to know who Nina Cage was in the letter._

_“If it's Nina Cage, you mean the child trapped in the west tower, for trying to escape with the Holy Saint?”_

_The king nodded. The scholar thought about Nina Cage._

_She was a woman he knew, No,_ a child _he knew._

_They were in a friendly relationship, renting a waiting room he had found to avoid the disturbance. There were many maids who had learned to go around because they were looking for a good place, but she was especially a pitiful child._

_'_ You seem to be suffering from the blame. _'_

_She was crying in the waiting room, so I comforted her a few times. But other than that, we rarely met. The maids crying in the corner of the castle were surprisingly common._

_“After a few years passed, I was going to let her getaway far from the castle,” the king said._

_“I heard that, too. Your Majesty, I've seen her closely. But I heard that the escape was caused by a cathedral brainwashing.”_

_“Yes, but it was related to the Queen's life.”_

_Beato put his chin in his mouth and fell into agony. The contents of the letter were also serious to the naked eye._

_'_ When it comes to the Queen, His majesty is always picky. _’ Beato thought inwardly._

_It was only three years ago that the iron-armed Iberian king fell into love. He kidnapped the saint and made her a queen. Nobody knows, but Beato knows. At first, it was quite rough, but this man really fell in love._

_“There's another saint too, so I don't have to go to the rescue.”_

_Nevertheless, he went to the Holy Land to save the saint. So the king made the saint a queen._

_“If this is true, Nina Cage is a substitute for a saint. Plus, because your heart has been healed, there's a risk of the saint's seal getting out.”_

_“Yes, so I'm trying to get rid of Nina Cage trapped in the Western Tower.”_

_Beato frowned. This king, who is trying to kill an innocent child with no guilt was not cruel. Strangely enough, he remembered the Bible in the holy land._

_If you sacrifice one person to can protect the one you love, would you be able to kill that person?_

_I couldn't tell why this phrase came to mind. Maybe that's why the little face of the little child came up in my memory and disappeared._

_“Was it platinum blonde?”_

_A girl with the same hair color and round red eyes as Saint, No, the Queen._

_Honestly, the first time I saw her, I thought she was cute._

_“That's strange.”_

_Strangely, it struck me. Beato pressed his chest down because something was strange. Maybe she was the reason. I have to advise him to kill her right away, but the wrong words popped up._

_“You have to be careful about killing people.”_

_The king nodded at Beato’s words, momentarily relieving the man._

_“I'll consult with her.”_

_It was a satisfactory answer, but Beato, strangely human, had a strange impulse._

_“Your Majesty, I have a request.'”_

_“What is it?”_

_“Let me go to the west tower with you.”_

_The king's face was filled with wonder. He'd like to fully explain in words, but Beato couldn't explain them well._

_“Why, all of a sudden?”_

_Me? Do I feel sorry for her?_

_Beato tilted his head. There were so many poor people in this world. There was no reason to sympathize with Nina Cage. Poor orphans and poor maids were both common._

_“I'll take you through the procedure.”_

_“Please.”_

_Nevertheless, Beato tried to beat his urges many times, but he just couldn't. Sadly, however, The king didn't give an answer._

_* * * *_

_It was not easy to climb the west tower. The stairs were steep, and cobwebs were drooping here and there because there was no sunlight. In the beginning, it was a place where sinners would die._

_“How many royal families have died here?”_

_There were no bloodstains, but there were no traces. He slowly climbed the stairs, grazing through the dust._

_How long did he walk like that? When he reached the roof, Beato saw the child._

_“Ah-”_

_Nina Cage's condition didn't look that bad. For a person who has lived in this tower for three years, she seemed to be strong. However, her empty face and thin limbs stood out._

_“Who, who are you?” the child asked, covering her mouth._

_“My name is Beato. You remember me, don't you?”_

_The child came close and looked at him. Then she turned her head hard._

_"Re- I remember! My scholar!”_

_I was so worried about her slender neck because she nodded so hard._

_“How are you doing?”_

_I didn't realize that it was such a thoughtless question for a child trapped in the west tower._

_But then the child laughed. Nina Cage answered with a bright smile, with a faint complexion on her pale face._

_“Somehow,” she paused, a heartbeat passed between them. “I managed, what about you, scholar?”_

_A clear voice stuck to my ear. Beato inadvertently tried to get it off his ear, but it was useless. The scholar realized then._

_“Oh no.”_

_The words of the child, who had not been able to leave the west tower for three years, remained deep in his mind._

_“I still can't forget it”_

_The warm wind that blew on the west tower and Nina's voice._

_Why did he go to see Nina Cage after that?_

_Guilt and sympathy were both right and wrong. From the moment he became the king's teacher, Beato laid down his conscience. A scholar was a person who only read books, but sometimes he was able to persecute people by creating a huge system. Beato had thought that the higher he became a scholar, the heavier his position was._

_Such a man became Sgerto, who spoke thoroughly and thoroughly for Iberia, and who was to tell the king to sacrifice his servants for the country._

_“A person, who is innocent but must die.”_

_Critics say it's cruel, but the king of Iberia was not one who killed innocent people either. The same was true of Dio, a life-saving doctor, and Jean Leo, a leader in battle._

_But the conclusion to kill Nina Cage came pretty early._

**_''We have to kill her”_ ** _said Dio, the doctor._

_When the circuit of the saint crosses to Nina Cage, the queen will be in danger, it was for this reason._

**_“I'll allow it.”_ ** _Said Ricardo, the king._

_He valued his queen, the saint, more than anything in the world. The king thought it was worth killing a little girl for her._

**_“I'll execute her.”_ ** _Said Leo, the first chief engineer of Griffin._

_It was a job to have an executioner. But he was a knight responsible for the leadership of Iberia. Killing an innocent child is a very cheesy job, but the knight was willing to take the job._

**_“Who killed Nina?”_ **

_The letter came from the Pope. The pope, who loved the saint, sent a letter to the king of Iberia to kill Nina Cage. The king was willing to accept it. When the child died, everything would be solved._

_There was nothing left. Beato was Sgerto, but he couldn’t stop him. If he wanted to save the child with his own greed, all his cauldrons would be ruined._

_The guilt of this and that subject left a lump in my mind. The child said to the scholar, who was torn apart._

_“I'm an idiot.”_

_A clear voice scattered beside the wind._

_“I don't want to hate anyone. Why do they think that's what I'm thinking.”_

_Tears dripped on the child’s cheeks. The child said in tears._

_“Will it come true if I pray earnestly? I prayed to God earnestly. Will God hear my prayers?”_

_Beato himself, at the time, had longed for miracles._

_***_

_The knight let go of his knife and let out his breath. Beato knew that cutting the throat of a young child was nothing to the knight in battle. He felt vivid that the reason he let out his breath was because of guilt._

_A lukewarm wind blew. Beato mumbled in the damp air._

**_“You were innocent, Nina.”_ **

_It's just that you've sacrificed for us who live in this world._

_The knight’s breath had not diminished. The soldiers had hurriedly cleared the remnants._

**_“One person recommended.”_ **

_A small lump was stuck in his voice._

**_“One person allowed it.”_ **

_A small lump pressed down his coming breath._

**_“One person just carried out his orders.”_ **

_The small lumps grew sourer._

**_“I couldn't stop and closed my eyes.”_ **

_Even the saint, the queen, had nothing to do with Nina Cage's death. She didn't know anything, but ignorance couldn't be an excuse._

_After Nina Cage died, nothing changed. The king ruled Iberia admirably, and the queen was happy by his side._

_The knight was the same as before, and so was the doctor._

_Only Beato sometimes had a heart attack._

_Names that no one called were easily forgotten. That was the law. The existence of Nina Cage soon disappeared._

_And then, one day, secretly, the Pope came to Iberia. The man who had all the power in the world had the same platinum blonde and red eyes as the forgotten child._

_He climbed frantically up to the west tower and sobbed._

_There were occasional cries of the younger sister._

_He could have guessed, but Beato didn't ask the reasons._

_Neither the king nor the queen, nor the doctor, nor the knight, could ask the reasons._

**_“Nina, if there is a God, hold his flesh and empty it. May your page be rewritten.”_ **

_Beato thumped his chest. A lump in my heart naturally did not answer. So Beato closed his eyes quietly._

_Everything was peaceful, but the lump never left his heart._

~~

It took Nina a moment to breath as she saw all that through Beato’s memories. The original Beato’s memories. Gasping for air, he looked at everyone in the room. That part of the story was never shown in the book. Probably because Nina Cage was too insignificant to amount to anything. That was her. She was Nina Cage now. 

“Are you alright?” the question was asked with such worry that Nina couldn’t lash out at Arkane. She continued to stare into those chocolate brown eyes as she calmed herself down. “Breathe, Nina. You can do it.” 

“I-I’m not-” Nina, she wanted to say, but Arkane seemed to know that already, and also seemed to understand that whoever she was then, was not her now, currently. Currently, she was Nina Cage whether she wanted or not. 

Air and fire scattered around as the walls around them got destroyed. “What was that?!” It was Ricardo, angry, she was sure, but when Nina looked, the desperation on the face of Iberia’s king was more obvious than anger. “What was that?” He asked again, and Nina’s heart ached. 

Looking at the others, Alex had the same expression. Beato had was crying face down, Seraphie and her brother were kneeling, staring into space with dried tears on their faces, Dio and Leo were just dumb founded. 

“That was the truth.” 

“That never happened!” Alex screamed at Scion’s response. 

“Probably not in this timeline, but originally, it did.” 

“You lie,” there was threat in Ricardo’s voice. “I would never hurt Nina. _Never_.” 

Nina knew that Ricardo was speaking the truth. For now. But she also couldn’t deny the fact that Ricardo was the reason for the original Nina’s death, and it seemed that everyone save for Alex was involved in her execution, too. 

“Wouldn’t you?” There was something in Arkane’s tone of voice that mocked that statement despite the softness in its tone. She was like a child asking innocently, but her face was serious enough and the eyes she directed to Ricardo made the red-eyed king falter. 

“I-I-” she had never seen Ricardo stutter before. Nina was felt for the man. Nina felt for all of them. The silence that loomed over after that was deafening. “No.” Ricardo didn’t seem convinced himself. 

“Ding, ding, ding, ding.” Scion imitated a winning bell sound from the modern world. “The correct answer, is you would. You already have after all. All of you.” 

“I wasn’t involved in-” Alex seemed to excuse himself, but he stopped as Arkane cut him off.

“Ignorance isn’t an excuse to a crime. You knew your brother was killing an innocent person then for the woman he loved, but you spoke nothing to save your mother who has tried to kill and hurt countless other innocent lives. You are no-”

“That’s enough,” and it is. She’s had enough. The look of regret and sorrow in everyone’s face was enough for her. She’s sure even the original Nina Cage would forgive them. “That’s enough.” 

“Nina,” Arkane looked at her and Nina stood up. 

“I appreciate you doing this, despite the ruckus it has caused.” She’s learned etiquette, of course she has. “But I won’t require their apology any more.” 

It was the truth, too. Whatever had happened in the first timeline will stay there, and by listening to her own heartbeat, she knew that the original Nina was supporting her decision. 

“Are you sure?” 

She looked at the desperate faces all looking back at her. Everyone on the ground, kneeling, as if asking, no begging for even a tinge of remorse or affection from her. She knew they were different. She made them different by even coming into Nina’s body. 

“I am.” 

She didn’t see what was happening with the siblings behind her, but they must have come to a sort of agreement.

“Alright then, will you still stay?” 

Nina, without looking, nodded her head as she squatted down the floor and hugged Ricardo into her arms. Everyone else joined in the hug and apologies were mentioned here and there. The other timeline must be talked about between everyone though, but she knew that would go on easier. Nina guesses that it would be a lot more awkward now though since Ricardo and Seraphie’s previous love for each other has been revealed. 

Turning around momentarily to thank the siblings, despite the ruckus they have caused, she saw that they were gone, the changed room going back to what it looked like as her cell before. 

“I have a story to tell,” she suddenly spoke, the memory of Arkane’s soft touch and Scion’s piercing gaze supporting her. “Will everyone listen?” 

It was kind of poetic to tell her story in the place where the original Nina died. The place of her nightmares, but she was sure that this place would no longer give her bad memories from now on. She guessed that that was what the siblings had meant to do. Internally, she thanked them before continuing with her story. Her story from another world and how she became Nina Cage. 


End file.
